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Famous art and the vast sums of money such pieces can fetch on the black market means there is still a lucrative demand for art thievery.

Only four years ago another set of famed Warhols went missing. In 2009, his unique portraits of Muhammad Ali, Jack Nicklaus, Pele, Dorothy Hamill and other athletic superstars worth $10million - were stolen from a collector's home.

Police said the collection of 10 silk screen paintings of famous athletes of the 1970s was taken from the home of businessman Richard Weisman - who had commissioned the iconic pop artist in 1977 to create the portraits.

A commissioned portrait of Weisman was also stolen, said Detective Mark Sommer of the Los Angeles Police Department's art theft detail.

Two more portraits included in the set were of scientist Sigmund Freud and philosopher Martin Buber

At the time, a $1 million reward was offered for information leading to the return of the paintings, which police described as a 'very clean crime' that required no 'ransacking' of the art owner's home.

Warhol became internationally famous in the 1960s for his iconic image of a Campbell's soup can, his avant-garde films and his parties that mixed celebrities, artists, intellectuals and other beautiful people at his New York studio called 'The Factory.'

At the time, art recovery expert Robert Wittman, a former investigator for the FBI's national art crime team, said about 95 per cent of stolen art, especially well known pieces, were recovered.

'The real art in an art theft is not the stealing but the selling,' he said. 'People know what they are. You can't sell it to the industry, it's not going back to the market and you also can't sell it at auction.'